Participação dos Salários no Produto Americano:

Participação dos Salários no Produto Americano:

People Think We’re in a Recession. Don’t Blame Them. – NYTimes

Yet this week, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of American adults found that 57 percent still think the economy is in recession. People don’t take this as a technical economic research question; they take it to mean, “Is the economy good?” The labor market is still slack, meaning millions who would like to work can’t and those who do work have limited ability to demand higher wages.

Recent government disclosure made headlines with the finding that 95 percent of income gains from 2009 to 2012 accrued to the top 1 percent of earners meanwhile the real market incomes for the 99 percent rising just 0.1 percent a year

Wages and salaries peaked at more than 51 percent of the economy in the late 1960s; they fell to 45 percent by the start of the last recession in 2007 and have since fallen to 42 percent. When the economy does grow, that growth disproportionately accrues to the owners of capital instead of to wage earners.

Republicans call for lower taxes, fewer transfer payments and less regulation. In some cases, they focus on the need to reduce the public debt or to tighten monetary policy.

Democrats are much more focused on the wage and employment problems. But their policies mostly benefit the poor, and they provide little help for middle-income families. Economic Report of the President, which features a chart showing how productivity has pulled away from wages since the 1970s.To change this a list of policies such as education and human capital policies, including expanded prekindergarten, improved access to higher education, holding colleges accountable for quality and better apprenticeship programs. He also promoted policies to raise overall growth, like corporate tax reform. These policies might promote wage growth over the long run.

The one period of really robust wage growth in the last 40 years was the late 1990s, when the labor market was tight and workers could effectively demand higher wages in exchange for their labor.